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Texas Throws Out Ban On Upskirt Photography

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals threw out an “improper photography” ban that protected women from upskirt photos stating it clearly violates the First Amendment.

As long as a person is in a place public, it is legal to take photographs of them without permission.

"A person's purposeful creation of photographs and visual recordings is entitled to the same protection as the photographs and visual recordings themselves," wrote Justice Sharon Keller, the court’s leading social conservative, in her opinion.

Keller said while no court would ban a person from writing, the camera is the pen of the photographer.

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The ruling stemmed from the case of a San Antonio man who was charged with taking photographs of children in wet swimming suits.

Jim Harrington of the Texas Civil Liberties Union says he doesn’t support the kinds of photos taken, but maintained that the language of the ban was too broad.

"It was an extraordinary broad law, and it encompassed all sort of free speech activities," Harrington told WOAI.

"It was actually used to stop people from taking pictures of federal courts and detention centers."

"You can have, obviously, a very targeted kind of law that protects young people and minors from being photographed, we would consider that to be totally proper," he added. "But when you have a law like this which is so sweeping in scope, that violates the First Amendment."